Jacobs, L.A.; Rachlin, K; Erickson-Scroth, L; Janssen, A.

Abstract: Transgender and gender nonconforming people who fulfill diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) often present to mental health providers with concerns that are distinct from those without ASDs. Gender Dysphoria (GD) and ASDs have been proposed to share etiologic mechanisms and there is evidence that ASDs may be more common in transgender and gender nonconforming people. Through two case studies of high-functioning individuals with ASD and GD diagnoses, the authors discuss ways in which deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM) and the limited ability to articulate an inner experience, along with the intolerance of ambiguity as a manifestation of the cognitive rigidity characteristic of ASDs, may present special difficulties to gender identity formation and consolidation. The authors suggest that ASDs do not preclude gender transition and that individuals with high-functioning ASDs still retain the right to make informed decisions regarding their medical care and life choices. The authors also consider possible challenges and suggest techniques for assisting such clients in exploring their gender identities.

Many Paths: The Choice of Gender - Book, Work in Progress.

Subtitled: A Memoir of Gender, Transgender, GenderQueer Identity and the Search for Meaning Within the Human Experience. Completed manuscript.

Summary: The historical narrative of transgender identity – that of being ‘born in the wrong body’ – is one of brokenness and victimization. Through memoir mixed with cultural analysis and Gender Theory, this book puts forth that the individual can engage in an open-ended exploration of gender in which they attempt many different possibilities, continually attuned to their feelings and to the social structures in which they exist; ultimately they can construct themselves in forms of their own devising whether those forms align with current social norms of gender roles or bodies, or not. Simultaneously, it suggests that gender constitutes an arena through which we can examine provocative questions of identity and meaning of the human experience. Additionally, it touches on that in upcoming decades and centuries, the application of technological innovation to the body will make gender unrecognizable, interchangeable, and fashioned by imaginative acts of self creation. This book explores the past, present, and the future of gender.

Posthuman Bodies, Posthuman Selves

Summary: Human identity has been intertwined with technology since the harnessing of fire, and this relationship will propel us into our futures. Trans and gender nonconforming people, those of us who perceive our transitions as imaginative constructions of body, identity, and relationship to society, can be at the forefront of a revolution. We can be among the first to evolve toward the posthuman.

Informed Consent

Summary: A brief history of the philosophies of care used in the treatment of transgender and gender nonconforming people, from the earlier World Professional Association for Transgender Health's previously rigid and binary Standards of Care to more modern, client-centered Informed Consent protocols advanced by LGBTQ health centers and the LGBTQ community.